In recent years, digital TV broadcasts have started to enable images and sounds with high resolution and high definition to be watched and listened with a television receiver. Further, at almost the same time, the television receiver has proceeded to support networks. With the progress, functions of the television receiver have increased. As a result, the operation and each setting method of the television receiver have been complicated, thereby increasing the number of inquiries to customer response centers prepared by a manufacturer and the like.
In general, an operator receiving an inquiry first asks a user to operate a remote controller, grasps a cause of conditions and situation of the television receiver of the user, and then, encourages the user to operate again the remote controller so as to resolve the problem.
However, the operational method has been complicated as described above, there are many cases that a user cannot operate as instructed by an operation, and problems have occurred that discomfort feeling is imposed on the user as a result and that the operator cannot resolve trouble of the user immediately. Therefore, such a method is proposed that an operator operates an electric device of a user using a terminal directly or indirectly via a communication network using a device connected to the communication network such as the Internet and the like, and thereby intends to resolve trouble (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-92206).
One of problems to solve by the method as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-92206 is to specify a device of a user making a call on the customer response center side. A lot of terminals including personal computers, cellular telephones and the like are connected to the communication network typified by the Internet. The customer response center is capable of immediately finding and operating a device owned by a user making a call among the terminals.
To identify the user who makes a call, a user ID is used in the above-mentioned conventional example. Described as the ID i.e. identification information are a telephone number of the user's house, user's name, address, e-mail address, password and the like.